State overpaid millions in unemployment benefits -- now DWS wants it back
Yohanna Gerges, 48, was working as a full-time Lyft and Uber driver in Albuquerque before the pandemic began. But in the spring of 2020, business dropped sharply and he developed a lung infection that wasn’t due to COVID-19, but still left him with long-term symptoms. In April, he filed for unemployment and began receiving $461 weekly under the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program, a federal program funded with federal dollars and designed for gig economy workers, managed in New Mexico by the Department of Workforce Solutions.
All seemed well until a year later when, out of the blue, DWS notified Gerges that he had been overpaid $13,432 in PUA funds — money he was now supposed to pay back immediately. If he didn’t, DWS warned in a letter, the agency would withhold his future unemployment benefits and the state of New Mexico would “intercept” his tax refunds until he paid back every penny.
The overpayments were not Gerges’ fault. They’d been caused by DWS miscalculations and misinterpretations of federal guidance, errors the agency made with thousands of other people across New Mexico. When DWS started clawing back the overpayments by deducting money from unemployment benefits, many people were left unable to pay for rent and other necessities. Today, they’re still struggling with the repercussions.
“All I did was submit the documents that they needed,” said Gerges. “At one point, they came and said, ‘Hey, you know what, you’ve been overpaid over $13,000.’ And that was a big shock for me.”
Read more: https://searchlightnm.org/new-mexicans-asked-to-repay-unemployment-benefits-that-the-state-sent-by-mistake/
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